There is a timely article by Naomi Klein pointing out the fact that immediate world-wide, political action occurred in the aftermath of both the recent 'banking crisis' and the earlier 'war on terror', without finance proving an insurmountable obstacle, whereas climate change has generated nothing like the same response (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/06/dont-look-away-now-the-climate-crisis-needs-you). She (and many others) clearly feel that 'global warming' has the potential to destroy many more lives and much more property than either of the above but the emissions of 'greenhouse gases' have increased by 67% in the 20 years that politicians have been arguing about climate change (and, in some cases, 'pledging' actions). In spite of this growing problem, many countries and organisations actually seem intent on exploiting ever more problematic sources of energy (e.g. tar sands and gas from fracking). Klein clearly believes that humans adopt a wide range of strategies enabling them to cling to the ostrich-like belief that 'all will be fine in the end'. She even lists (and rejects them). It does seem extraordinarily difficult to convince people that this is one potential disaster that we really are 'all in, together'.
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